When children’s stores reopen, let’s leave boys’ and girls’ sections behind
Lisa Selin Davis in The Guardian
Back in February, when people still went into stores to buy things for their kids, a California state assembly member, Evan Low, introduced AB 2826. The bill would require retailers with 500 or more employees to stop dividing toys, clothes and childcare items into boys’ and girls’ sections; those who didn’t would face a $1,000 fine.
To some parents, this seemed overboard and unnatural. Scientist Barbies and macho black Easy-Bake ovens are one thing, but forcing stores to abandon gendered sections? That ignored biological reality. As one California mom noted, “We wanna raise our daughter to know she’s a girl, that’s how she was born, that’s how she will live … I want my daughter to dress like a girl and I want my boys to dress like boys and I want those sections to be separated.” The president of a religious freedom-defending non-profit remarked that “Compassion for our LGBTQ+ friends and neighbors does not require us to embrace absurdities on gender.” CLICK TO CONTINUE
Tags: gender equity, men and boys, religious freedom, social justice, women and girls